This invention is related generally to surveillance systems, and more particularly to the automatic activation of an in-car video recorder using a signal from a vehicle speed sensor.
Vehicle-mounted surveillance systems, also termed in-car video systems, are seeing increased use in the security industry and law enforcement community as an effective means to provide an indisputable video and audio record of encounters involving officers and citizens. In these systems, a video camera is typically mounted on the police car's dashboard or windshield and is generally arranged to have a field of view of the area to the immediate front of the car. The field of view approximately corresponds to what an officer would see when seated in the car's front seat.
The video camera is operably coupled to a video recorder, such as a video cassette recorder (“VCR”) or digital video recorder (“DVR”), mounted in the police car, often in the trunk. A video recording may be started manually by the officer, or in some systems, the video recording is started automatically when, for example, the officer activates the police car's emergency systems (such as overhead lights and/or sirens), or when a vehicle speed-measuring radar unit is operated. Some in-car video systems have auxiliary trigger inputs that automatically activate the record mode of the video recorder when a trigger signal is received. For example, some departments connect the shotgun release to the auxiliary trigger input in order to automatically begin video recording when a police officer removes the shotgun from its vehicle mount.
In-car video systems serve to enhance prosecution of traffic, DWI/DUI and controlled dangerous substances offenses (to name just a few) by contributing detailed graphical and auditory evidence in a time-sequential manner that is inherently unbiased and objective. Such evidence is a valuable adjunct to eyewitness and officer testimony. In addition, as with other quality-improvement initiatives where conduct is surveyed and recorded, in-car video system usage has been shown to assist in the maintenance of high professional standards among law enforcement personnel. Police-community relations have improved and citizen complaints of police misconduct have lessened in many jurisdictions where in-car video systems are used, often as a result of the inherently high-quality evidence provided by such systems. Videos taken with in-car video systems are also valuable training aids to law enforcement personnel.
Video evidence is protected (and the evidentiary chain of custody readily established) because the video recorder and video recording medium (i.e., videotape or hard disk drive) are typically “locked”, often both mechanically and electronically, within a tamperproof security enclosure in the car that is only accessible by law enforcement command personnel. In addition, the in-car systems are configured to prevent erasure or over-recording of a recorded encounter to ensure the integrity of the video evidence. In-car video systems may superimpose time and date stamps on the recorded video image as a further enhancement to the evidentiary strength of the videotape.
In-car video systems generally employ a wireless microphone carried on the person of a law enforcement officer to record an audio soundtrack that accompanies the visual scene captured on videotape. The audio soundtrack is an extremely valuable complement to the recorded video because it acts as a transcript of what was said, by whom and when. In some cases, the audio soundtrack is more valuable as evidence than the visual record because issues pertaining to consent, admissions, and state-of-mind of the suspect and/or officer (to cite just a few examples) may be resolved more effectively by the audio record. In some systems, additional wired microphones may be deployed in other locations within the car, such as the rear-seat passenger area, to record sounds and conversations emanating from those locations.
While current in-car video systems perform very well in many applications, other ways to automatically trigger a video recording would be desirable. When in-car systems are automatically triggered upon the occurrence of defined events, the need for user intervention (particularly during periods of high stress) is lessened and thus fewer incidents of interest are missed being video recorded.